A Dream of Empire Ch. 003

"I have to admit, this was absolutely worth it. Thanks for convincing me, Talos," Alanna said softly as the pair journeyed inland. Talos outstreched his hands, exhaling an exaggerated sigh.

"You see? You just need to have faith," he smirked. Talos had full confidence in her reaction during the weeks he had planned the excursion, and the island was one of the few places that he himself was impressed with.

"It sure doesn't look haunted from here," Alanna giggled, wrapping her arms around one of his as they stepped through the trees. Talos chuckled, but remained silent. The sorceress hadn't seen the interior of the fortress yet. "Although, I do sense a strong ward over the island. There's quite a bit of active magic here, as well," the sorceress explained, shifting her gaze across her surroundings.

Talos nodded. "Yeah. Dun Aysla had been a winter retreat for the kings of Tor Remilla, supposedly. They spared no expense securing the place. Magically infused doors, evocation traps, the works," he explained. "Can't blame them really, since it was surrounded by human kingdoms back then."

"It amazes me still that we once lived so closely to them," Alanna replied seriously. "Could you imagine? Being able to travel to an elven city in the matter of a day?"

"It is something," Talos sighed, thinking of his own elf back in Catriona. "It's a shame, really. That whole genocide thing."

Alanna frowned, reading him. She decided to settle in place just beneath the white walls of the fortress, taking her backpack off.

"Yeah... now that I'm so close to Cass, it's hard for me to believe much of anything that I read in the histories anymore," Alanna said sullenly, reminded of her recent studies of the historic events. "Our forefathers murdered millions of elves, for what? It wasn't for glory, I'm sure, like all the tomes say."

Talos glanced away from the elven fortress in front of him, turning towards the sorceress. He removed his backpack as well, tossing it on the ground.

"Power," he replied softly. "It always comes back to power in the end. Murdering elves under the pretense of glory was just a convenient excuse for the Emperor, and I refuse to believe it was anything else. We traded and cohabilitated with the elves for hundreds of years, peacefully, and heck, we're even speaking in Elvish now. But hey, they held all the best farmland, and what's a couple million lives next to farmland?" he asked rhetorically, fishing a slab of jerky from his pack.

Alanna shrugged sadly, grabbing an eighth-wheel of cheese from her own sack. She bit into it, decidedly hungry, and talked through her chewing. "The worsh part is that I can't talk to anyone about ish. No one cares, Shalosh."

Talos nodded. "It all happened too long ago. Pull someone off the street, they wouldn't care what happened yesterday as long as it hadn't affected them directly. At least we're talking about it, so that's two human souls in agreement. Only six million to go." Alanna swallowed the food in her mouth.

"Perhaps if everyone else had their own elves to love, they would not be so against them?" Alanna offered as a terrible, yet potential solution to the racial divide.

Talos chuckled. "Worked for you," he replied playfully, finally biting into his own lunch.

"Just me?" Alanna retorted. "What of you, sir? When did you change your tune?"

Talos reminisced as he chewed, trying to come up with the answer as Alanna read his thoughts. He'd personally slain at least half-a-hundred elves in Tardia fifteen years ago, then another half-dozen the following summer. Yet, he went on to rescue an elven king from a would-be assassin a couple years after that, so he figured the change of heart had been somewhere around then. He replied aloud after he'd swallowed his food, being the appropriate way to hold a conversation.

"I think I just got tired of living with myself. Living with my hate," he answered genuinely. "I was about your age, even. One day I just... realized it was all cowshit, I guess."

Alanna wanted to chide the man for not having a romantic story of his change of heart, but held her tongue lest she ruin the tone of conversation. "What does Cass think?" she asked softly.

"I don't tell her anything of it. She doesn't need to know," Talos said with a heart full of guilt.

"She'll learn eventually," Alanna quietly warned him after a half-minute of silence. Talos sighed, shaking his head.

"True... but, only when I'm on my deathbed. Either by her hand, or another's."

-=-=-

Alanna and Talos finished their lunch, then walked westward on Talos' behest. He had visited the island with another years ago, and had found a convenient access into the elven fortress back then over a crumbling section of the westerly wall. Each official entrance of the fortress was magically and physically locked, which would bar all passage unless one had a mind to scale the walls.

The trees around them rustled in a midsummer's wind as the lovers walked, the gnarled, ancient oaks of the isle twisting and turning into all manner of interesting shape. The dread sailors had of the island finally made sense to the enchantress, and Alanna figured that Dun Aysla would likely look haunted at night if one were to traverse through these woods in the darkness. She remained in the highest of spirits, though, as she followed in the footsteps of her man so formidable.

Talos found his make-shift entrance of a wall ruined within half an hour, frowning when he did. That section of the stone was now covered with the gnarled trunks of several trees, trees which rose smoothly and proudly from the grassy floor as if raised only to protect the wall itself. The bark appeared newer than their twisted counterparts around, and their leaves sighed defiantly when the man realized there were no low-hanging climbing branches available for Alanna.

"Hmm..."

Talos stood with his hand on his chin, squinting in confusion at the recent growth of foliage. Sure, it had been a good three years, but there was no way a tree could grow that quickly. Perhaps he was only misremembering, and the entrance laid on the north wall.

"What's wrong, my love?" Alanna asked, striding towards him and folding her arms beneath her breasts.

"Nature taunts me, Alanna," he admitted quietly. She read his thoughts, understanding his plight. Her heart dropped just an inch when she realized his memories were true, at least according to him.

Not to be outdone, Talos decided on absuing another potential entrance to the north. He turned towards his companion to tell her as much, jumping in his skin when he looked upon her.

Alanna looked as beautiful as ever, of course, swaying patiently with her hands clasped at her side as her thin black skirt blew in the wind.

What surprised the man instead was an interesting growth in one of the oaks behind her, five holes in its trunk simulating the visage of a man squinting with anger, and grinning all at once.

"What's... wrong, my love?" Alanna asked again with a pinch of worry, spinning towards his fear and gasping when her blue eyes met the blackened eyes of the oak. "Well, that's... unnatural. Right?" Alanna asked him, hoping for an irrefutable answer she knew he couldn't give.

"Erm... well, nature is host to all manner of bizzare things," he said truthfully, not answering her question directly. He strode forward to clasp her hands in his, beckoning the sorceress away from the face. It disturbed him greatly, and he certainly wanted to try the other entrance now.

He had convinced himself the face had to have been carved by some mischevious adventurer by the time they arrived at the north wall. Here, the fortress was crumbling as well, as it was everywhere really. A thin jutting of stone provided potential access to the interior of the fort, and Talos pointed towards it.

"Just like the wyvern's lair. Come on," he offered optimistically to the sorceress. Last year, the pair had scaled a cliff face with similar passage deep in the Badlands to the east.

"At least there will be no screaming beasts this time, huh?" Alanna replied, equally optimistic. Talos smirked as his hands met the stone, and he lifted himself to the small surface of uneven stone before leaning down to lift his lover to the same elevation as he.

The pair shuffled slowly along the stone, their backs against the wall as they slowly made their way towards another jutting of stone, which would carry them another four feet higher still. Another easy climb, another lifted sorceress, another shuffle along the wall. Talos found this path far more difficult than the former, but eventually climbed the twenty-foot height of the wall regardless.

He knelt and extended his hands towards Alanna, who took them eagerly to remove herself from the thin surface of crumbling stone sixteen feet from the grassy floor. Talos groaned with the effort, but Alanna stood atop the wall with he a moment later.

The enchantress's eyes widened at the sight of the fort's interior, even as she huffed and puffed from the recent exercise. The fortress itself was shaped like a rounded rectangle, each of its four walls ballooning outward to form a curved screen of white. At the corners of the fortress, where the sides met, a tower had been raised, and intricate designs were still very obvious on their pillars.

Within the four walls lay a courtyard of stone, grass, and shrubbery, all manner of inoperable fountain and life-like statue decorating the grounds with the long-forgotten pride of an excessive era. Elves did appreciate their artwork, after all.

"It's gorgeous!" Alanna exclaimed, delighted by the scene. She had expected only ruin and void, seeing as the structure had been one of war.

"Like I said, Dun Aysla was a winter retreat of kings. And kings-"

Talos' reply was cut off by a piercing, feminine wail, a scream that bounced off the stone from all directions so he could not determine where it had originated from. He quickly shifted towards the sorceress standing beside him, thinking that she made the noise. Shocked face met shocked face.

"What?" he asked nervously. Alanna shook her head.

"I-it wasn't me, Talos," Alanna whimpered. Talos glanced around one more, an absentminded hand shifting to the pommel of his sword. He replied to her with a thumping heart.

"I forget there are some sea birds here who make that noise when they're mating," he lied to her with a nervous grin. Alanna shook her head in disbelief, but didn't enter the man's thoughts to keep his hopeful dream alive.

"Sure, Talos. Sea birds."

"Mhm," he grumbled defiantly.

After a moment and a sigh, Talos walked towards a staircase on the interior side of the wall, which led down towards the courtyard. Alanna followed him, having a limited choice in the matter, and also to not appear as a frightened schoolgirl in his presence.

-=-=-

Alanna and Talos had a decent supper that evening in the courtyard of Dun Aysla, consisting of breads, apples, and cheeses. They leaned on one another as they ate, swimming in one another's thoughts as they usually did when their mouths were full.

Talos anticipated camping here for the night before returning to Catriona the following day, and felt as if he'd weaved a successful break from motherhood for Alanna. She had not expressed worry over the babe's health in days now, although she still thought of him near every hour.

Alanna rose to her feet, dusting off her skirt lightly with the pat of her hand. She loved the color black when it was clean, but found the color collected the dirts and grimes of the world far too easily so she rarely wore it. Red was more her color, anyway.

"I need to pee. No peeking," she warned Talos, who would otherwise gaze at her constantly if she hadn't told him. She walked towards a corner of the courtyard, then suddenly felt the stone give way beneath her foot.

"Ahh!"

Talos gathered his pack and sprinted towards the crumbling stone, adrenaline fueling his strides. A hole five-feet wide had been created within the dilapidated stones, and Alanna had crashed through it as it fell.

He stood at the edge of the suddenly-present gaping hole in the ground, which had opened up into a large subterranean room of the fortress, and brought his hands to his mouth.

"Alanna!"

"Nuh... here, Talos!" Alanna shouted back from the darkness. Talos sighed with relief.

"Are you okay?!"

Alanna brought a trembling hand to her back, and casted a restoration spell on herself. "I'm not not okay!" she answered.

"What in all the hells does that mean?" the deep voice bellowed from above. Alanna's eyes fluttered open, and she raised herself to sit on her butt. Her mouth widened in shock, and her brows rose hastily.

"Talos!" she cried.

"What?"

Alanna's gaze meandered at the beautiful chamber before her. The room would have been as dark as a tomb, normally, but was instead illuminated by the dim glow of all manner of greenery.

Blue luminescent vines coiled over the roof of the chamber, And pink flowers grew between the cracks of the floor. White bushes was present near the walls, and there was a purple tree by the door.

"Talos!" Alanna repeated obliviously.

"Alanna, what?! Are you okay?!"

Alanna gulped, rising to her feet with a groan. "Yeah I'm... fine..."

She swayed towards the radiating tree, glowing as if it held a great power within its core. Purple streaks of light emanated from between the folds of its bark. Alanna ran her hand across it, but it felt wooden and cold like a normal tree. The sorceress shut her eyes, and sensed an active magical infusion.

"Come down here!" she shouted, completely unable to hide the excitement in her voice. Talos trode carefully over the tumbledown stones, making the final fall with heavy step and grunt. He scanned left and right, not particularly caring about the glowing foliage until he found a safe-and-sound Alanna beaming back at him. Her arms were outstreched, her eyes twinkling with pleasure.

"Talos, your surprises are positively wondrous," she exclaimed happily, skipping towards the man and wrapping around him gleefully.

Talos, truthfully, had no idea the interior of the fortress held such a delight. He wasn't sure what to say, and had never experienced such a sight.

"Knew you'd like it," he replied instead, leaning in and kissing the sorceress on the forehead. Alanna giggled happily, snuggling into his chest. She wasn't reading him at the moment.

"I do, I do! Is all the fort like this?" Alanna asked him with wide eyes.

Talos looked around, then glanced back towards the opening in the ceiling. Fortunately, they could make their way out the same way they came assuming the stone wouldn't crumble further.

"Uh, sure... but we shouldn't explore. There are all sorts of traps laid about," he warned her seriously.

"Then we shall stay here," Alanna giggled. "Did you bring the wine?"

Talos shifted his shoulder, bringing his pack about and rummaged through it with his arms still wrapped around Alanna. He had the wine, and a thin linen blanket fortunately.

"Yep," he responded succinctly, unwrapping himself from her. He laid out the blanket for her to sit on, and uncorked the wine. Alanna plopped down with giggling delight.

"I love you, Talos," she whispered to him. Talos handed the bottle to the sorceress, allowing her the first drink.

"And I love you," he replied warmly.

There, surrounded by the unnatural glow of a hundred plants, the pair drank and laughed as the sun waned from the world, and darkness enveloped the sky once more. The chamber and all else around was completely silent, but for their laughs and their love.

And Alanna was far from silent.

Talos sneakily wrapped his arms around her when she was gazing wondrously over the tree glowing purple, guiding her gently to the blanket they were seated upon. He kept a hand wrapped within her auburn hair to ensure a soft landing, then began removing his pants and smallclothes as he kissed her deeply.

Talos brought a hand to Alanna's thigh, hiking her long skirt up her legs. He pulled her panties down, then played with her button to get her wet, unnecessarily.

"Mmm, Talos," Alanna whimpered, releasing herself from his lips. "Let me take my clothes off?"

"No," he replied with a grin, pulling her body towards his stiffened cock.

"You'll ruin my skirt..." she whispered, beaming as their eyes bore into one another's. He pressed his manhood against her slit, toying with her for a moment before parting her.

"I'll shoot on your face," Talos reassured, as the sorceress began to moan. Alanna clenched her eyes shut, and pushed her ass towards him eagerly to take his length deeper.

"You better," she sighed lustfully. Alanna refused to push her pleasure onto Talos this night, to ensure he lasted longer. His sensual pumping of her dripping cunt lasted for another five minutes, and soon began to fuck her at full rate.

"Stop," Alanna commanded, huffing for air. Talos had no choice in the matter, and halted his assault half-way into her. He raised an eyebrow. Alanna shifted herself off from him for two inches, then swung her feet over the man's shoulders. She forced him to hold her legs steady with an arm wrapped around her thighs.

"Okay, fuck me," she commanded once more, releasing him. She moaned sluttily as he plunged into her once again, feeling his cockhead slam against her sensitivity.

"You can just tell me next time," Talos grunted as he fucked her, driving into her to the hilt. Alanna replied with a lustful mix of laughter and moans.

Talos brought a thumb to her clit in revenge, forcing the sorceress to scream his name as he fucked her senseless.

"Yes, yes! But... ahh! But Talos! You, can do, the same, to me!" Alanna declared through her lust and the ravagings, feeling her peak drawing close.

Talos leaned towards her when he noticed her near, slamming into her at the same steady rate.

"I don't feel comfortable enough with our relationship to do that," he said dryly, his cock fully buried within her sopping pussy. Alanna brought her hands to his wavy hair, clutching it for dear life as she screamed his name, cumming on him. Talos soon pulled out of her, feeling his own drawing close. Alanna gasped for air just once, but knew her place.

She quickly shifted to her knees, taking Talos' glistening cock in her hand. She gave it a couple quick pumps before she leaned into it, slipping it between her parted lips. She hummed on it playfully as she began to bob on his pillar, and she grabbed one of his hands to bring it to the back of her head, as if to guide her. Alanna knew all the man's weaknesses, after all.

She soon glanced skyward towards him, meeting his piercing green eyes with her twinkling blues. She giggled happily around his cock as she watched him shudder with pleasure, knowing he was close. When he gripped her hair, Alanna sucked in as much of his length as she could, about two inches away from his base, moaning wildly as she did. Talos groaned as he erupted into her mouth, shooting several strands of his hot seed deep into her throat.

Alanna's experience allowed her to drink his salty gift simply, only letting out a light gag before she swallowed it all. Talos released her, then laid on his back atop the blanket in satisfaction. The sorceress snuggled against him with a wide smile, enjoying her man's wide grin. She pushed his head towards hers gently, and brought her lips to his.

"Ew, Alanna," Talos groaned, pushing her face away playfully. She gulped again, audibly, to ensure he got the message.

"I'm cleeean," she mewled childishly, then succesfully assaulted his lips with hers, rolling atop him as they kissed deeply once more.

All contents © Copyright 1996-2023. Literotica is a registered trademark.

Desktop versionT.O.S.PrivacyReport a ProblemSupport

Version ⁨1.0.2+795cd7d.adb84bd⁩

We are testing a new version of this page. It was made in 11 milliseconds